Yvette Cooper’s Big Ferrybridge Evasion

In last week’s Wakefield Express, Yvette Cooper argued for a “proper energy strategy”, then evaded the issue.

Ferrybridge C power station is closing, despite record low coal prices. Why?

Because the government has imposed the highest carbon tax in the world. Coal-fired power plants are being crippled.

Power stations in the EU pay £5.30 per tonne of CO2 emitted, but British coal-power plants pay £23.38 per tonne. We should be benefitting from falling electricity prices, as we are from falling oil and gas prices.

The Labour Party can’t blame the Tories (Labour imposed the Climate Change Act and supports the tax).

The Tories can’t blame the EU (the UK carbon tax is five times higher than other EU countries).

No-one can blame “the climate” (the global temperature hasn’t risen this century despite record CO2 emissions).

Green policies in action – Logged in the US & Canada, ground to wood chips, shipped across the Atlantic, then transported from Liverpool docks to Drax power station in Yorkshire (all using Diesel power)“Green” energy at Drax

The blind obsession with carbon dioxide is having real consequences and they are not good ..

Drax now imports wood chips from the US instead of burning coal, at massive cost;

Kellingley super pit has been shut;

Ferrbybridge is being shut;

The council has killed a new fracking industry before it has started and electricity and gas prices should be falling dramatically and they’re not.

So, we do need a proper energy strategy and it should be based on two simple principles – cheap and abundant energy.

Come on Yvette, take an honest look around you and argue for a proper energy strategy – one that will actually benefit us all.